Scion Sales Continue to Slip
Toyota conceived of its Scion brand as a way to capture the youth market and build tomorrow's base of Toyota customers. While that plan had worked quite well for the first few years, and models, the automaker has faced a sobering loss of sales in the last year or more.
While Scion was able to hit monthly sales numbers of 15,000 and 20,000 on a regular basis during the early years of its existence, the figures over the recent past have fallen off. In fact, the year-on-year sales for the brand have dropped for 16 straight months. Scion recorded a low of just 7,782 units shifted in January of 2007.
Former Scion head honcho, Toyota’s Jim Lentz, believes that part of the problem was the way the changeover between the old and new models of the xA and xB was handled. Scion dealers started to run out of product after production was halted in December of 2006, while waiting for the new cars to arrive in March.
Said Lentz, “We underestimated the loss of momentum from the dark period for those two vehicles."
Despite the sales drop, Lentz says that Scion is still doing what it was intended to, that is bringing customers under the Toyota umbrella.
"Sure, we'd like to see more customers,
Comments
davido
Ugly sales for an ugly car
phd_engineer
The cars lost their appeal when they gained weight and size. This was a key mistake that Toyota made, and continues to make with vehicles like the Highlander and Sequoia.
Contrast this with the Ford Fiesta press release that discusses the "fattening" trend and the ways Ford resisted bloat in the new design.
Mena
Younger buyers tend to care more about style and looks than technical specs. IMO, the sales slip is due to the cars looking the same now as when they were introduced.
ziggy
In January of 2007 Scion dealers were still selling the old body style xB and the xA. The re-designed xB did not come out until May and the xD came out in August. Slow sales in January of 2007 cannot be attributed to the re-designs. The xB sales are up over 22% from last year and xD sales are pretty even with the xA for the same period. It’s the tC that is having slow sales (down 30%) and the article does not mention that.
josh
It's nice to see that Toyota can fail. It may humble them a bit and they'll make better cars. It seems to be working for GM at the moment, assuming their new cars live up to their hype. Still, Toyota succeeds by building several different flavors of vanilla. The Scion brand was supposed to attract the youth market that's looking for something a bit more bold. The xB stood out enough that though it was ugly, it was unique, which seems to be all that's important to a large part of the youth market these days. As per Toyota norm, the next version was more vanilla than the last. It's been a long time since Toyota made a bold car, like the mid '80s Supra.
MJK
I liked the original, it was such a change compared to what was on the road. I'm 6 and a half feet tall an I fit in the original great. I recently sat in the re-designed version at the NAIAS and was amazed at how little leg room it had. The I.P. was reshaped in a way that I could no longer get my legs underneath without hitting. I think they focused to much on the style side of things, and though it is larger, the usable inside space is not as efficient and people are reacting to that.
mo
does scion means "ugly" in jap?? i don't know which type of youth these cars aim for. for sure not me, probably the dorkiest youth who think driving the scion cube is cool.
@josh, you're vanilla thing makes total NON-sense. keep the vanilla milk shake for yourself. being unique doesn't necessarily mean good, as you said in this case unique meant ugly.
i would say that ppl faced the hype of the new brand, and then realized reality ..... these cars are ugly. or maybe the parents of these youth realized that their kids bought an ugly thing and return the car to the dealer (that does happen for some teens right). i live in montreal and so far i only saw one xB (and i laughed at the driver right in his face) and one tc. Ohh maybe that is why the sales decreased …. Ppl are laughing at scion owners bc the cars look funny.
Mongo
Production of the gen 1 xB ended in 2006 Ziggy which led to the problem of nothing to sell by the time the new xB arrived. I tried to buy a new xB in Jan. 2007 and none of the dealers had any stock or any availability of obtaining stock.
Add that to the fact that the original xB was ugly cute like a Pug and the new xB is ugly like a turd and priced higher and sales are down.
TC is a bargain and continues to sell.
josh
mo,
is French your first language?
Ducati Minor
My friend replaced his Corolla with a new Scion xB. I didn’t like restyled truck-shaped urban hatch when I first saw it. Even though I didn’t like the weight gain and new styling, the new xB feels a lot nicer from the inside. The cabin is plush, the backseat can easily fit three, and the power under the hood is big in Scion standards. I think the sales drop is from all the obvious: people don’t like the new styling, the weight gain, and the higher prices. Toyota seems to been losing its direction here.
ziggy
Mongo-
Scion sold 61,000 xB's in 2006 (avg 5108 per mo) and sold 43,000 of the 2nd gen xB's in 8 months of 2007 (avg of 5375 per mo). How do you figure sales are down?
xB's and xD's have sales comparable to 2006. tC's sale are down. let's face it...if it's reliable people will buy it. If Toyota or Honda would have made the Aztec it would have sold!
mo
no it is english .... i am learning french though.
Mongo
Here you go Ziggy
quote Autoweek-
Sales, year-on-year, have dropped for 16 straight months. Since August, monthly sales have declined from each previous month, even though dealers have had two redesigned models in their showrooms during that period.
The first-generation Scions were hits right out of the box in 2003 and 2004. But generation two has struggled. All of which begs the question: Is this a brand built to last?
The changeover of two of Scion's three models--the boxy xB and the xD hatchback--dragged on for months and helped depress sales 24.8 percent in 2007 to 130,181 units. But even with new vehicles, Scion can't seem to pull out of its slump.
-end
mo
english is my first language. but i know french, some arabic and urdo (born and lived in dubai for 18 yrs, what do you expect). don't confuse me with these camel lovers coz i don't have an Emarati passport. i am american/canadian, dual nationality is great.
Jonathan Fung
I'm not surprised by these numbers. Really, at this point, the only good-looking Scion is the tC. And really, the market that Scion is targeting is youth, which, for the most part, make their decisions based on appearances. It has to look good. They don't want to drive to school in an Impreza STi because they're ugly (regardless of how it may preform.) They want pretty cars like the tC. And when the xD and xB have turned ugly, I can understand why their target market is turning away from them.
VII
The whole reason why Scions were so successful was because of their unforgivingly legit JDM looks...Now that they've been all Toyotacized, they've become extremely un-cool...They look like Toyota's with weird badges, not the weird, sore thumbs that drew 20-somethings to them when they first appeared on the scene. The tC is the only thing they got going for them, they really must know this too (they didn't bother with trying to screw up the tC by changing it too much at all...headlight/taillight change to crappy, aftermarket look). They really should'ave just brought over another JDM model to replace the whack xA and put the Camry motor in the xB and maybe offer a lip kit or something for it, something discrete (I mean the "real" enthusiasts buying xBs are just going to throw aftermarket stuff on it anyway). Refresh it a bit, not make it fat and round and bubbly like the rest of the Toyotas... >_>
a_meehan
I completely agree with VII. They killed the cool, it's that simple. The original Xb had "so ugly it's cool" appeal, but the new Xb is just plain ugly.
Who wants to customize Mom's breadvan, yo?
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